Books in the News: State of War by James Risen

FROM THE PUBLISHER
On the front page of today's New York Times, veteran national security reporter James Risen writes that "months after the September 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials."

NEWSLINE
"Risen's reporting isn't bulletproof. Like most intelligence reporters, he relies heavily on anonymous sources, and several anecdotes in State of War are attributed to a lone leaker. That makes some of the book's claims difficult to verify, while leaving Risen open to charges that he is being used by partisan ax grinders." from Time Magazine, by Romesh Ratnesar.

NEWSBYTES
New Book Reveals Secret War Operations
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. Read full story.

Behind the Eavesdropping Story, a Loud Silence
(NYT) -- THE New York Times's explanation of its decision to report, after what it said was a one-year delay, that the National Security Agency is eavesdropping domestically without court-approved warrants was woefully inadequate. And I have had unusual difficulty getting a better explanation for readers, despite the paper's repeated pledges of greater transparency. Read full story.

BLOGS
HOW THE NYTIMES IS RINGING IN 2006
(Michelle Malkin) -- Yes, it's New Year's Eve. And since there's no rest for the NYTimes, I'm not taking it easy tonight either.

You see, NYTimes' reporter James Risen has been a busy bee over the holidays. The co-author of the infamous Chicken Little opus exposing the NSA special collection program to monitor international communications between suspected al Qaeda operatives and their contacts will be launching his new book, State of War, on January 3. Read full story.

TENSION: It's all relative
GRAVITY: Those anonymous sources will get you every time

Tags: terrorism, Middle East, Iraq, war, FBI, NSA, CIA, Risen, books
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life

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See Amazon.com for reader reviews:
State of War : The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration